Box CEO Shows Up On Quora To Appease Troll

CEO Aaron Levie is going to be JUST fine...

Cloud storage company Box is headed toward an IPO, and everyone got their first look at their S-1 filing last week. The prognosis is simple: Box has about another year left on its cash reserves, and going public is their best shot at floating a few extra years while they’re in the red.

“Aaron Levie is down to a four percent stake heading into the Box IPO,” wrote the asker. “How does he feel watching DFJ and USVP laugh to the bank after ten years of sweat, blood, and tears?”

Of course, Mr. Levie showed up to defend himself:

“So far, I have yet to bleed while building Box,” Mr. Levie wrote, “And honestly, if anyone is regularly bleeding while building a software company, I would have some serious questions about their strategy and if they’re executing properly.”

It’s no mystery that Mr. Levie seems so rational — after all, his modest “four percent” is going to be a pretty hefty share post-IPO, as Jason Lemkin of Storm Ventures pointed out in the most up-voted Quora comment.

“My guesstimate is that Aaron will be worth $360m within 90 days of the IPO,” wrote Mr. Lemkin, “b/c my guess is it will settle into a valuation of about $6 billion.”

Betabeat is now the newly launched Innovation section of the Observer. All your favorite features and columns—as well as exciting new areas of tech coverage—can now be found at Observer.com/Innovation.

Don't miss the latest and best writing on technology and the future of business innovation. Add the Innovation section to your RSS feed and follow the Observer on Twitter and Facebook.